"iPad boom strains lithium supplies as prices triple" (SQM; LIT)

We have a lot of posts on the magic metal, links below.
From Bloomberg via FuturesMag:

Investors from JPMorgan Chase
& Co. to BlackRock Inc. are trying to make money from the exploding
popularity of iPads and increasing sales of hybrid cars by investing in
producers of lithium for batteries.
Prices for the conductive metal, the lightest in the periodic
table, have tripled since 2000 in a market now worth $1 billion a year
as uses expand in vehicles, ceramics, electronics and lubricants. Apple Inc.
and Toyota Motor Corp., maker of the Prius electric-gasoline car, have
few alternatives as they pursue higher performance and mobility, leading
Dahlman Rose & Co. analysts to forecast lithium demand will double
by 2020.

Talison Lithium Ltd., whose shares have gained 22 percent in
the last month, together with Soc. Quimica & Minera de Chile SA,
Rockwood Holdings Inc. and FMC Corp., account for almost 95 percent of
world supply. Rio Tinto Group, the third-biggest mining company, may
join the largest suppliers if it goes ahead with a mine in Serbia it
says is capable of producing 20 percent of global output of the metal.

“There are some companies now that we think are attractive to
get a hold of lithium exposure,” Evy Hambro, who manages about $13
billion in mining stocks for BlackRock in London, said in an interview.
“We’ve got a small exposure today and we’re looking for some more,” he
said without naming any companies.

Demand for lithium-ion rechargeable batteries out of Asia has
helped prices climb threefold in the last 12 years, London- based
Roskill Information Services Ltd. analyst Robert Baylis said. Global use
doubled from 2000 to 2011 according to Roskill, which has recently
consulted on six lithium projects.

Lithium Oligopoly The advantage of lithium-ion over other battery types is that a
typical cell can generate more electricity than competing cells such as
lead-acid. There is about 1.7 grams (0.6 ounce) of lithium carbonate
equivalent in a mobile phone, 2.1 grams in a smart phone and 20 grams in
a tablet, according to Dahlman Rose.

There will be a “step change” in the global lithium industry in
2016 or 2017 when electric cars became more commonplace, Rockwood Chief
Executive Officer Seifollah Ghasemi said. Hybrid electric vehicles that
are fitted with a lithium- ion battery contain about 1.3 kilograms (2.9
pounds) of the material, plug-in hybrid electric vehicles have about
12.8 kilograms, while an electric vehicle uses about 19.2 kilograms....MORE

Although Lilly introduced Prozac to the U.S. in 1988, they didn't really
begin marketing it until 1991. Sales increased five-fold by 1994, the
year the big bull market of the nineties kicked in.The joke on
trading desks was that this was the Prozac market, sort of the "What me
worry?" approach to equities (which may explain the Nasdaq at 5048 in
March, 2000).*This excursion down SSRI lane was triggered by the thought "If we run out of lithium, what will the bi-polars do?".
*Cramer had similar thoughts, relayed in this NYT article from 2002:

...''My
own view is that one reason the investor class, including me, missed
the downside was serotonin,'' James J. Cramer, a former hedge fund
manager and author of ''Confessions of a Street Addict'' (Simon &
Schuster, 2002), said, referring to a substance in the brain that
antidepression drugs augment. ''Prozac and all those other drugs banish
the 'this is the end of the world' thoughts,'' Mr. Cramer explained.
''Which means you are not as anxious as you should be about an obvious
down side.''...